COACH x MAD PARIS

Coach Went MAD

Final Project for Fashion Communication Summer Intensive, Parsons Paris

The Brief

Introduce Coach’s Coachtopia line to Paris in a way that feels culturally credible, high fashion, and unmistakably Coach. Establish Coachtopia not as a diffusion line, but as a progressive luxury platform rooted in experimentation, circularity, and creative reinvention.

The Insight

Paris does not respond to sustainability statements. It responds to craft, intention, and concept.

For Gen Z tastemakers and fashion insiders, sustainability only feels luxurious when it is treated as design, not messaging. Reuse becomes desirable when it looks obsessive, intentional, and art driven. The most exciting luxury today comes from transformation rather than newness.

In Paris, the future of fashion must look considered, not corrected.

The Idea

Coach Went MAD is an invitation only Paris fashion event in partnership with MAD Paris that introduces Coachtopia through the lens of art, obsession, and transformation.

Hosted like a private fashion world moment, the event unveils one of a kind Coachtopia bags reworked using archival watches, jewelry, and found objects curated by MAD Paris. Each piece embodies Coachtopia’s commitment to circular design by turning existing materials into collectible works of fashion art.

Guests experience the line not through retail, but through curation. They do not shop. They witness.

Event Concept

COACH WENT MAD, on August 25, 2025, a one-night, Met Gala–style cultural takeover celebrating the expansion of the Coach Foundation’s Dream It Real program into France. The event proposal merges high fashion spectacle with sustainability storytelling, transforming the museum into a surreal, immersive experience. Guests are invited to step into a futuristic utopia where heritage collided with chaos, and where Coachtopia’s circular and sustainable design ethos was showcased as future luxury.

The evening begins in the manicured gardens of MAD Paris with a whimsical champagne toast at golden hour. The historic façade of the museum formed a grand backdrop to an Alice in Wonderland–inspired scene filled with oversized surreal floral installations, pastel wildflowers, and iridescent metallic blooms scattered across the lawn. Guests, dressed in couture and sharply tailored suits, mingled among artfully mismatched garden furniture and mirrored tables that reflected the blossoms. Playful scale shifts, from towering teacups to miniature chairs, created a sense of curiosity and dreamlike wonder, offering a light, floral, and editorial contrast to the bold, hypermodern world awaiting inside.

A garden party gathering in the evening sunlight with elegant guests mingling among decorated tables and blooming flowers in front of a grand historic building, with bubbles floating in the air.

The evening’s narrative would integrate MAD Paris’s curated exhibition on the history of sustainability and innovation in fashion. Alongside archival pieces, conceptual installations would reframe Coach’s design codes through a surreal and sustainable lens. The visual identity for the event would merge Coach’s classic monogram and leather craftsmanship with Coachtopia’s futuristic, circular design ethos. A palette of deep heritage browns contrasted with iridescent lilac, mint, and pearl white, while organic, ripple-inspired shapes and fluid gradients symbolized transformation. Lighting throughout the museum would shift from warm golden tones to cool dreamlike blues, creating a vivid tension against MAD Paris’s traditional, ornate interiors. The clash between historic architecture and hypermodern set design would become a central part of the atmosphere, serving as a visual metaphor for heritage meeting disruption. Branded touchpoints, from digital invitations to in-person signage, would align under the hashtag #CoachWentMAD, ensuring a cohesive presence both onsite and online.

Interactive experiences would give guests multiple points of engagement while reinforcing the event’s identity. A photobooth against a pink and purple Coachtopia cloud backdrop would offer an instantly shareable image. A DIY bag charm station, in collaboration with Are You Mad, making back charms with beads made of recycled plastic, would invite attendees to create accessories from recycled beads. A tooth gem station would add a playful cultural moment designed for social virality while still feeling integrated into the event’s bold, high-fashion atmosphere.

A strip of photo booth images featuring a young woman with pink hair and a brunette with a checkered handbag, against a pastel purple background.
Close-up of a pink textured handbag with a colorful beaded strap and keychain hanging from it. The background is pink with some clouds.
Close-up of a person's mouth showing white teeth with decorative rhinestone and colored studded lip piercings on the upper front tooth.

A central highlight would be the Dream It Real scholarship showcase. Seven students, one from each continent, would present original work inspired by Coachtopia’s values, displayed as part of the evening’s central installation to connect Coach’s philanthropic mission with its creative vision.

The product reveal would introduce three exclusive Coach x MAD Paris bags: one inspired by Parisian style, one by New York style, and one created with the scholarship students. These designs would be previewed to attendees before a public launch, with proceeds directed to sustainability charities.

In the proposal, Coach would partner with Rouje, the Parisian fashion label founded by cool-girl Jeanne Damas, to create an exclusive limited-edition makeup line. As Coach does not currently have a beauty division, this imagined collaboration would offer an unexpected yet seamless extension of the brand’s lifestyle universe. The collection would draw from Coachtopia’s playful color palette and Rouje’s signature French-girl aesthetic, resulting in products that feel both collectible and wearable. A central highlight would be The MAD Lip Edit, a trio of gloss-balms in Rouje’s iconic red tones, paired with The MAD Lip Charm, a miniature Coach bag charm designed to hold the gloss like a piece of jewelry. The charm transforms the act of carrying makeup into a statement of style, reflecting both brands’ shared love of accessories and everyday luxury. By introducing makeup through a partner already synonymous with effortless Parisian style, Coach could experiment with beauty as an accessory to fashion, creating an additional layer of exclusivity for event guests while positioning itself within a new category without diluting its core identity.

This collaboration would make sense not only aesthetically but geographically and strategically. Rouje is rooted in Paris but also has an established presence in New York City, creating a natural bridge between Coach’s American heritage and the Parisian setting of the event. By working with Rouje, Coach could tap into a shared audience of style-conscious consumers in both cities while reinforcing the cultural exchange at the heart of the event. Guests would also take select products from this imagined makeup collection home with them in gift bags, making the collaboration tangible and extending the event’s presence beyond the evening itself.

A red makeup palette case with a gold letter 'C', situated next to an open eyeshadow palette labeled 'The Mad Edit' and displaying a collection of eyeshadows in a variety of neutral and warm shades.
Close-up of a red Coach handbag with gold hardware and a matching red lipstick keychain that has a gold 'C' emblem, with a small red coach case in the background.

Coach Went MAD positions Coachtopia as a natural fit for Paris. Conceptual, crafted, and culturally fluent. It proves that circular fashion can belong in the highest rooms of luxury when treated as art.

Ambassadors & Guest List

  • Ariana Greenblatt

    (Actress)
    AMBASSADOR

  • Lil Nas X

    (Musician)
    AMBASSADOR

  • Elaine Welteroth

    (Journalist & Former Teen Vogue Editor-in-Chief)
    AMBASSADOR

  • Jeanna Damas

    (Rouje Founder & Creative Director)
    AMBASSADOR

  • Blake Lively

    (Actress)
    AMBASSADOR

  • Stuart Vevers

    (Coach Creative Director)
    AMBASSADOR

  • Sarah Jessica Parker

  • Bad Bunny

  • Nicole Wallace 

  • Olivia Rodrigo

  • Storm Reid

  • Koki

  • Omar Sy

  • Lola Tung

  • Chiara Ferrigne

  • Serena Williams

  • Bella Hadid

  • Vanessa Paradis

  • Lily-Rose Depp

  • Selena Gomez

  • Charlie XCX

  • Negin Mirsalhe

  • Camila Coelho

  • Conan Gray

  • Johanna Ho

  • Chappel Roan

  • Kim Seonho

  • Ashtin Earle

  • Sabina Socal

  • Victoria Monet

  • Bruna Marquezine

  • Yug Yeom

  • Sabrina Carpenter 

  • Barry Keoghan

  • Camila Mendes

  • Sarah Marie Day

  • Andrew Day

  • Holley Kelsey

Press release document announcing the COACH WENT MAD event on August 25, 2024, celebrating collaboration between MAD Paris and the Coach Foundation's Dream It Real program, with details of the event's features and goals.

Press Release & Influencer Brief

A printed document on a pink and light green gradient background, detailing a partnership campaign between Coach New York and MAD Paris, including company overviews, campaign goals, influencer expectations, branding, and social media information, with signatures and logos at the top.

Reflection

Coach Went Mad was the final project for my Parsons Paris summer intensive, and it became one of my favorite creative risks. This project taught me how to take a familiar luxury brand and reimagine it with a completely new attitude. My partner and I spent weeks researching Coach and MAD Paris and exploring how to push their identities into something campy, fun, and future-forward. While we both developed the strategy and copy, I led the creative direction and overall guest experience.

June 2024